


Can’t Stop the Pain

by Quickspinner



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Luka knows, Lukabug, Superheroing is hard on the hands, Viperion - Freeform, Wait who’s comforting who
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-09-07 03:43:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20302906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quickspinner/pseuds/Quickspinner
Summary: Injuries are a fact of life when you’re a part-time superhero. Knowing Ladybug will fix it doesn’t take away the pain, or the fear.And for Ladybug, healing it doesn’t take away the guilt.





	Can’t Stop the Pain

“Viperion,” Chat bellowed, and Ladybug’s head whipped around to see Chat’s baton smash the machine chewing on his teammate’s arm. Chat bent to hoist the taller boy on his shoulder and leapt away. Ladybug flew to join them, her heart in her throat as she landed on the roof. She stared in horror as Viperion knelt, cradling his arm against him, lips pressed tightly together. 

“Let me see,” she says, kneeling beside him. Chat moved to the edge of the roof to keep an eye on the akuma’s metal minions. 

Viperion’s suit had protected him from the slashing metal teeth, but his hand was clearly broken. His eyes met Ladybug’s and she could see the fear in them. She knew what his hands meant to him. Ladybug touched his Miraculous. “We could—“ But Viperion was already shaking his head.

“Not for this,” he said roughly, pain and fear tightening his voice. “You need my power to defeat the akuma, or you wouldn’t have called on me. I’ll be okay once the akuma is gone.” 

He didn’t use the words, because underneath his mask he was still Luka, with all his insight and empathy. He knew, surely he did, the way she feels sick to her stomach every time someone says “you’ll fix it, Ladybug.”

Viperion mustered a smile. “I’ll be okay, Ladybug.” His eyes flicked back towards the rampaging akuma and his army of mutated yard machines. 

“Okay,” Ladybug says, wiping her eyes quickly. “Follow us, but hang back and wait for my signal.” He nodded. “Chat Noir, let’s go.” She leapt back toward the battle, Chat on her heels. 

It shouldn’t matter, she knew. The stakes were always high. The akuma must always be defeated. The battle for her city was always personal. 

It shouldn’t matter...but it did.

***

Luka caught Sass gently in his palms as his transformation dissolved. “How are you doing, little guy? That was a rough one.”

Sass sat up in his hands and hugged Luka’s healed fingers. “I’m ssssorry I couldn’t do more. I am glad Ladybug’s cure resssstored you.” 

“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Luka told him. “If it weren’t for you I’d have had a lot worse than a broken hand. Come on, let’s get you something to eat before Ladybug comes back. I hate giving you back hungry.” He peeked out of the alleyway, tucking Sass gently inside his hoodie, and headed for the Liberty. 

Sass was halfway through his plate, Luka leaning back against the counter beside him, when Ladybug found them. 

“I’ll wait,” Ladybug smiled at the little serpent kwami. “I had to recharge anyway so I’m not on a timer anymore.” She looked anxiously at Luka. “How are you?”

Luka held up his hand and wiggled his fingers. “Good as new.”

She seemed to shrink as she sighed out her relief, coming towards him. “I’m so glad.” Luka jumped slightly as she took his hand in hers and turned it over. 

“Hey,” he said softly, ducking down a little to see her face. “I’m really okay. It’s fine. You and Sass took care of me.”

“I’m always so afraid,” she said, almost to herself, as she ran her gloved fingers lightly over his bare hand. “That this will be the one time that something goes wrong. I don’t know what I wouldn’t done if your dreams had been destroyed because of me.”

Luka let her hold onto him, touching his hand over and over, as he studied her face. Then he threaded his fingers through hers and squeezed her hand. “It wouldn’t have been because of you, it would have been because of Hawkmoth. We’re doing something important out there and I’m honored you chose me to be a part of it. And I know it doesn’t help to hear this, but I trust you, just like everyone else on the team, just like Paris.”

Ladybug shook her head. “I don’t want you all to trust me that much if it means taking unnecessary risks. You all just throw yourselves away like it’s nothing because you think I’m going to save you.”

“Hey.” Luka put his free hand over their joined fingers. “I made a mistake today. That’s on me, not you. Believe me, I could have lived without going through that. I won’t lie to you, it hurt like hell and I was scared.” Sass lifted from his now clean plate to rest on Luka’s shoulder, curling his long tail around Luka’s neck. “I know you feel pressured, I know you feel like you’re the only one of us who’s not allowed to make a mistake. I can’t take that burden from you and I can’t make you stop feeling that way. It’s just who you are. But I can tell you that none of us could bear that burden any better than you, that you are absolutely the person we— _ I _ —trust the most to do this job. And you may have picked me to wear the snake miraculous, but I’m the one who said yes. It’s not as if I didn’t have any choice.”

She shook her head slowly. “Thanks, Luka.” 

Luka felt Sass pat his cheek. “You made a good choicsssse, Ladybug. He issss a good partner.”

“Right back at you, Sass.” Luka held up his fist, and the kwami met it with his own curled flipper-like appendage. 

Ladybug looked at them mournfully. “I understand why it has to be this way,” she commented, pulling the Miraculous box out of her compact. “But it seems so unfair that I have Tikki to talk to all the time, and the rest of you only get to see your kwami for a few minutes.”

“Time issss an illusssion,” Sass told her. “The sssstrength of a bond cannot be measured by it. Your lifetime issss but a moment to a being assss old as Tikki, but that doesss not make the love you share any lessss. Sssso it issss between Luka and me.”

Luka swallowed a sudden lump in his throat, touched. Sass gave him an understanding smile. “It issss time,” the kwami said gently.

“Right,” Luka said roughly as he slipped the bracelet off his wrist. Sass swirled back into the magic jewelry, and Luka held it out to Ladybug. She took it, a sympathetic look on her face, and stowed the box in her compact.

“I’m sorry, Luka.” 

“No need,” he said, trying to pull himself together. “I just…didn’t expect him to say that.” 

She started to turn away, but he caught her hands in his. “Ladybug.” He looked searchingly in her face again. The freckles on her nose, the blue eyes, the little mouth that reminds him of one he’s been staring at a bit too much lately.

“Don’t,” Ladybug shook her head. “It’s better if you don’t try.”

He smirked. “Too late.” He added softly, “I always see you.”

She blushed faintly under her mask, but she quirked an eyebrow at him. “And if you’re wrong?”

“Then there are twice as many extraordinary girls in Paris as I thought.”

“Luka,”’she sighed. “It’s dangerous to know.”

“As long as you don’t tell me, I don’t know. All I can do is guess. Everybody in Paris guesses.”

She rolled her eyes, and her hands slipped out of Luka’s loose hold. “I really have to go.” He followed her up to the deck of the boat. 

“Ladybug,” he called, and she paused at the rail, already poised to throw. “If you happen to go by the Dupain-Cheng bakery, tell Marinette we have practice at four here tomorrow. In case she’s worried about me.”

Ladybug smiled back at him, and then with a whizz and a rush of air, she was gone.

**Author's Note:**

> I just wanted to write something easy and light and fluffy as a break. Instead, I got...this.


End file.
